BUZZ-Top of the Street: Zurich Insurance, Whitbread, SSP, CS, SGS

A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe's top-ranked* analysts:

** JPMorgan (LSE: JPIU.L - news) raises Zurich Insurance Group to "overweight" confident that Zurich will raise its FY17 divi to SF18 from SF16 FY16

** Citigroup (NYSE: C - news) double downgrades Whitbread -- to "sell" v "buy"; for Premier Inn, its analysis of US RevPAR data suggests sharing economy starting to impact cycle; & it sees just c4-5 yrs structural growth left in branded UK coffee market

** SSP Group (Frankfurt: 83S.F - news) gets downgraded to "neutral" by Citigroup which sees long-term potential but says current multiple does not allow for any missteps

** GM (NYSE: GM - news) upgrades Smurfit to "buy" as the valuation gap vs peers reopened

** Societe Generale (Swiss: 519928.SW - news) upgrades Credit Suisse (IOB: 0QP5.IL - news) to "Buy" after reviewing capital returns and cost-cutting potential

** Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) downgrades St James's Place to "neutral" given its exposure to regulatory tail risk and limited upside potential

**Jefferies raises SGS (LSE: 0QMI.L - news) to "hold", expecting better top-line growth, driven by the resource/cyclical areas

(*Analyst rankings from Thomson Reuters StarMine. Scale is from 1-star to 5-star with 5 being best. Analysts ranked on earnings accuracy as well as relative performance of recommendations over trailing 12-month & 24-month periods)